Sunday, 26 July 2015

After the somewhat optimistic post about taking advantage of the nice weather, I find myself gazing through the rain streaked window, watching the gale force wind ,swirling various things around our lovely garden, summertime has been and gone, end of July, more like bloody November here at Higgins Towers.

Not the most ideal weather, for a session of making terrain boards on the patio.

Driven indoors, and at a bit of a loose end, yes ok, I did say I would finish Pyrrhus, but I did'nt enjoy painting the models, and the frustration at my inability, to plonk some pigment on a Cretan Archer, had me desk diving again.
The dedicated followers of my idiot ravings on here know by now, that means,
I will find something, then get fixated, try to paint it, get frustrated, put it away, sulk a bit, then, hmmm I wonder whats under there?.................I think you can understand the cycle of despair by now.

Well, Spain has returned to the desk, I had the lads on standby anyway, so it was a simple process to push Pyrrhus into a box, and fill the desk with random Anarchists, and a token ethnic minority, in the shape of a Moroccan cavalry scout I have converted.

We now have this view, when we plant our fat arse onto the leather desk chair.

Lets have a closer look

Its mostly militia on this side, in various stages of paintyness, lots of converted loveliness in this lot, mostly head swappery, so we have a few lovely ladies, a wounded Legionario, with an attending Medico. Over the back there is the Moroccan scout, and accompaniying him, we have a Militia despatch rider slaking his thirst, whilst holding his trusty Motorcycle. The other two models are crew from the Anarchist car, remember that project? :-)

I work on a number of figures at a time, so you tend to find a weird selection of half painted nonsense littering my painting space, as I get towards finishing an individual figure, I then concentrate on that one, and try to get it off the lids, and onto a base.

The figures on the right are a lot further forwards, and I will try to get those squared away this week.

No organisation at all, and thats perhaps why I don't get a lot of stuff done.

Down here, we have some Legionarios, the plan was to send these "up North" to the talented Andrew Taylor, to get him to slap some of his excellent paintyness onto them. Sadly, real life intervenes, and I have limited funds, so I shall have to add my own Paintyness to them, until my financial embarrassment passes, and I can employ Mr Taylor's talents on some other models.

Sometimes though, you get some completed models, and this motley crew will be joining the FAI/CNT force, once I get their basework squared away

From left to right, converted Anglian/Empress militiaman (headswap) Footsore/Musketeer Brigand, Anglian/Empress Militia, with a Crooked Dice Female head swap, and on the end, an Artisan Design partisan/resistance fighter. Just goes to show how a little application, and a careful trawl through various ranges, can add a lot of variety to your militia force.

For those of you how wish to engage in some head switching fun, I shall point you in the general direction of this, rather iffy, video presentation, which may, or may not help you in your endeavours.

Sunday, 19 July 2015

As the summer slowly ticks away, I've suddenly realised, that if I want to take advantage of the nice weather, I had best get my arse into gear :-)

I have these boards to do you see, as New Buckingham don't possess any sandy, scrub type terrain, I thought I should make some of my own to take over, of course there is an ulterior motive to this, I want to do the boards, so I can use them to put on a game at a show, this show most likely being one of the Partizan ones.

So, into the garage I dive, and dig out the collection of pink boards, then lay them out on the grass to have a dekko at what I have.

So people, here is the cunning plan.

The board will be sort of flat, up to the bit at the end, where it will climb up towards a small plateau

The hill section at the end will consist of a small village town, climbing up to a church at the top.

Something along those lines, with perhaps not so many buildings, more perhaps like this

Now I have a problem do I embed the road sections into the boards, or make some lay on stuff to use instead?

I suppose, using lay on sections will mean the boards will get more use, making them a bit more generic, I shall have to experiment with some bits n bobs, and see what I can come up with

So, a little bit of work to do, and first off, I will try to shape the hill section at the end, and then work out the layout of the town. I already have a church, it will get a few alterations, so it does not look like the original model (Empress) can't be having that now can we :-)

Ok, so the game will consist of, the road to Madrid, running down the rough centre of the board, the town/village on the hill, the rest of the terrain I will figure out as I go along.

I do want to include an Olive Tree plantation, along with a little processing plant, and that will be made from this

I kinda threw this together, just to get it on the board for a game on two, and its really not that well painted, so bringing it back to life is another little side project, plus I get to practise a bit with painting buildings, and yes It won't be a twee little whitewashed job.

I don't like the roof, these tile sheets, are just far too uniform, so that just has to go.

I managed to pick up some sheets on E-Bay, the idea now being to cut them up, and do a bit of subtle rearranging, to get a more random look to them, and this messing about with tile sheets is all going to help in the long run, as there will be a few roofs to construct.

The model will get a new board to sit on, with some added scenic items to set the scene, and I am going to replace all the doors, with something more Spanish looking.

Saturday, 11 July 2015

Forlornly hanging around the edges of the painting desk, in their various half painted states, thinking to themselves

You see, it goes like this

Crash, bang, wallop, and a desk full of twisted plasticard, tortured into various bits, its all the fault of that Mad Max bloke, and his Fury Road nonsense. My head was easily turned, seduced by the world of roaring V8 engines, and the prospect of racing across the Post Apocalyptic world, in the hunt for Guzzoline, and my own harem of foxy breeders.

I've spent many a fruitless hour, trying to hack and melt my own little fleet of mental vehicles, the finished result, well its one solitary Motorcycle, and that has taken me an age to finish. Have to face it, I am not very good at this model making malarkey.

Admitting defeat, I carefully pack away the plasticard, and seal the lid of the liquid poly firmly shut, Then the rummaging starts, like some grey haired ferret, I sniff my way through the stack of boxes lurking under the desk.

first off we find some half painted SCW figs (remember that project), and they duly take their place on the desk of doom...............painty painty painty, brown, khaki, drab, boring, fed up, back into box.

Then, its time for King Arthur to ride out, galloping across the desk, cloak flying in the breeze, along with his stalwart men, they face the Saxon hoard ( well ok, three figures blu-tacked onto some old paint lids) I work out how many figures I need, for a game of Dux Britttanorwhotsit ( remember that project?) and discover that perhaps my willpower will not stretch that far, and I would like to have a game with something I have managed to paint, before the end of summer comes.

I cry a little bit, and as I wipe away the tears of frustration, my eye falls on a single random little fellow, there he is lying all innocent like, on the desk lamp base.
I pick him up, and place him carefully onto the desk

Mr Grey, although not in the 50 shades sense, but rather the hard polystyrene version.

I'd forgotten all about him, and his placcy mates, so here we have the best of both worlds, some plastic to hack and melt, followed by a bit of painty painty, in some nice fetching shades.

A big shiny box of Victrix Italian Allies, and they look like nice little fellows to paint too.

So units to add, figures to paint, and some new rules to boot.

With a sweep of his mighty hand, the desk now looks like this

Yes, Pyrrhus is back, and this time its war, Fat Boy Higgins v The Eagle King

and I shall get them finished, they will take their rightful place, upon the hallowed boards of New Buckenham Historical Wargames Club

To hack and slay their way through the mighty opponents placed against them. Victory shall be ours, unless of course we have to face that Lee Abbott bloke and his uncanny dice throwing skills.

Ohh the thrill of it all

Next time out, I will be reviewing a few new bits n bobs, the Victrix figures, and a quick dekko at the Sword and Spear rules I want to have a crack at.